Trump praises Cannon in Justice Department speech

President Trump praised Judge Aileen Cannon during his speech at the Justice Department, calling her “strong” and “brilliant.”

“We had an amazing judge in Florida, and her name is Aileen Cannon,” Trump said.

Spectators, he said, “were hitting her so hard, public relations wise.”

“They were saying she was slow, she wasn’t smart, she was totally biased. She loved Trump. I didn’t know her other than I saw her the couple of days that I was in court, and I thought her decorum was amazing,” Trump said.

“Actually, she was brilliant, she moved quickly. She was the absolute model of what a judge should be, and she was strong and tough,” he added.

Trump made the comments in an unusual speech at Justice Department headquarters, a rare appearance from a president as most executives seek to maintain a firewall with the department.

Cannon repeatedly ruled in favor of Trump during the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, including ultimately tossing the case after siding with arguments from Trump’s legal team that special counsel Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed.

It was an unusual decision from Cannon, which countered 50 years of precedence on special counsel authority, including a ruling from the Supreme Court.

She also initially delayed the release of the volume of Smith’s report dealing with the Jan. 6 portion of his investigation into Trump.

She later reversed course however, allowing for the release of the volume.

“That’s why I’m so impressed with Judge Cannon in Florida, how strong she was, how she held up,” Trump said later in the speech. 

“It actually made her more resolute than anything I’ve seen. I mean, it was amazing, because they were hitting her so hard.”